MIT Discovers Semiconductor That Can Perform Far Better Than Silicon

SciTechDaily ^ | 22 July 2022 | David L. Chandler

[Reily]

And boron arsenide

Boron - need mining See Borax mines & found in volcanic spring waters.

Arsenide - arsenic - so toxic! So, a potential environmental problem.

Enviro harpies won’t like that!

Key problem: from article
“.... practical ways of making this material in usable quantities. The current methods of making it produce very nonuniform material ....”

[bitt]

p

[Scrambler Bob]

Quick, buy property in Cubic Boron Arsenide valley.

[Sawdring]

It took four paragraphs to finally tell the reader what the new chip was made out of.

[Scrambler Bob]

Add in Cubic = a 3D Square, a real Nerd.

[x]

Good luck getting the 20 mule team back together, now that Reagan's gone.

[glorgau]

All (most) Chinese surnames.

[Wonder Warthog]

Good article...

[seowulf]

I used to use high purity germanium detectors for gamma detection.

Germanium and silicon detectors are common depending on the wavelengths you’re interested in. There are other less common semi-conductors that are used as well depending on application.

Back until the last 20 years or so, it was necessary to lithium drift the crystal to create more continuity of “holes” in the crystal structure caused by flaws in growing the crystal. The disadvantage in the was the crystal always had to be kept at liquid nitrogen temperature.

[bunkerhill7]

Coming to your local computer store soo!
A laptop that can kill you.

[knarf]

If only M.I.T. was American . . . . . sighhhhh . . .

[GingisK]

Yeah, but silicon semiconductors handle our needs just fine. The quest for smaller and faster electronics strikes me as an industrial hobby at this point.

[pepsi_junkie]

“Silicon is the workhorse of the entire industry,” says Chen. “So, OK, we’ve got a material that’s better, but is it actually going to offset the industry? We don’t know.” While the material appears to be almost an ideal semiconductor, “whether it can actually get into a device and replace some of the current market, I think that still has yet to be proven.”

Here's the difference between physicists and engineers in a nutshell. Physicist says "Look at this discovery I made! It will change everything!" Engineer responds "Is it practical? If not, it's not changing anything".

[Zathras]

Arsenic has been used in semiconductors for a very long time.
This is why the idea of implanting it in people to track them was fake news.
No company would take the risk of law suits.

[TangoLimaSierra]

Cubic boron arsenide was the active ingredient found in Happy Fun Ball.

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.